Steel building construction



Dec. 10, 1940. v PALMER 2,224,313

STEEL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION Filed Aug. 10, 1959 fieorgerwggggg BY W! ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 10, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

This invention relates to steel building, and pertains particularly to an eave construction useful in sectional metal roof structures.

The principal object of the invention is to provide an eave construction adapted to provide a weather seal against the intrusion of rain, sand, dust or the like, which the wind might tend to force interiorly of the building structure.

A further and important object of the invention is to provide an eave construction which cooperates with a superficial roof-covering provided for a sectional metal roof construction.

A further object of the invention is to provide a combined roof-covering and an eave construc- 5 tion particularly adapted to sectional metal roof structures embodying the use of prefabricated hollow-cell panel members.

The construction of the present invention is intended to be utilized in roof constructions embodying a plurality of preformed metal elements of the hollow-cell panel type, in which such elements are arranged in contiguous alined relationship to define the structural plane of a roof, with the hollow cells opening out at an edge of the roof. In such constructions, unless there is a pronounced pitch to the roof, rain will be carried into the open-ended hollow cells, together with sand or dust, and form moisture-retentive deposits which induce a rusting of the roof mate- 0 rial. The presence of these rust-inducing deposits materially lessens the effective life of the roof, and seriously detracts from the so-called permanence of steel buildings.

According to the present invention, I arrange 85 a plurality of the hollow-cell panels in the desired relation to form the roof structure, with the open ends of the hollow cells extending to an edge of the roof in the customary manner, and the cave construction may comprise a layer of 0 conventional roofing material superimposed upon the roof surface and brought over the open ends of such cells, together with a facia member secured to the edge of the roof and covering such open cell ends, the roofing material being disposed between the ends of the cells and said facia member and carried back over the face of the facia member to the upper surface of the roof, at which position it is folded back upon itself and m sealed in any suitable manner.

The accompanying drawing illustrates an embodiment of the invention, and referring thereto:

Fig. 1 is a sectional detail of a roof structure incorporating the invention, showing an edge 5;: portion of a roof formed with hollow-cell building elements, the view being taken along the longitudinal axis of one of the hollow cells; and

Fig. 2 is a partly broken-away perspective View of the edge of a roof provided with an eave construction according to my invention. 5

Referring to the drawing, I have shown a roof construction formed of a plurality of sectional metal building elements I, each provided with hollow-cell stiffening members 2, defined for example by the provision of a flat plate body member la and an undulating plate stiffening member Ib intersecured in any suitable manner, as by spot-welding or the like. Superimposed upon I the flat upper surface defined by the hollow cells 2 I have provided a layer of heat-insulating material 3, such as that obtainable under the trade name of Celotex, for example, the layer 3 being secured to the elements I through the agency of a plurality of so-called sheet-metal drivescrews, not shown, by an intermediate layer 3a of mastic adhesive material, or in any other suitable manner.

The roof-covering 4 is applied over the upper surface 5 of the layer 3, being extended over the full span of the roof in successive strips and being suitably adhesively secured thereto as in conventional practice, and is then brought over the open ends of the hollow cells as at 5. Prior to laying the roofing material over the open ends of the cells 2, I install a plurality of nailing plugs Within the ends of certain of the hollow cells 2, as at I, la and lb, these plugs being formed of wood or the like, and being driven into the open ends of the cells so as to be compressively wedged therein, and preferably, but not necessarily, flush with the ends thereof. After the roofing material d is brought down over the ends of the cells 2 as at 6, a facia plate 8 is nailed in place over the ends of the cells, the nails being driven into the spaced nailing blocks 1, la and lb, etc., as at 9. The facia plate is preferably carried down somewhat below the bottom edge of the roof structure, as at it, to provide a drip edge, and to keep rainwater from running back under the cave, particularly when a flat roof is constructed.

The roofing material is then carried forward under the bottom edge W of the facia plate 8, as at H, then carried upwardly over the face of the facia plate as at l2, and laid back over the portion 4 as at it, a suitable sealing composition such as asphaltum or pitch being applied to the intermediate space M to seal the exposed end of the portion I3, as at I5. This layer of sealing compos t on may be applied by the procedure known as hot-mopping, if desired, with good results.

The nailing blocks will be employed at as frequent intervals along the length of the roof as is necessary to hold the facia in position, as will be apparent to one skilled in the art. It will further be appreciated that the insulating layer 3 may be disposed under the hollow-cell roof construction, or omitted, if desired, without departing from the spirit and contemplation of this invention. I do not choose to be limited to the specific embodiment of the invention herein delineated, but rather to the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim:

1. In a sectional steel building construction embodying a plurality of prefabricated elongated metal building elements arranged in contiguous alined relationship to form a roof surface and having one or more longitudinally extending stiffening members defining hollow cells opening at their ends at an edge of said roof, a weathersealed eave construction for such an edge, which comprises: a facia plate extending along such edge in covering relation to the open ends of said hollow cells, and secured to said roof; and a layer of roofing material covering the upper surface of said roof and extending between said facia plate and said edge, along the lower edge of said facia plate, upwardly along the forward face of said 

